Archive for June, 2015

With this upcoming weekend celebrating the day USA declaring their independence from Great Britain’s rule. With all of the celebrations and displays of patriotism, my thoughts quickly go to the idiom of “Freedom is Not Free.” There are many citizens and their families that have paid the ultimate price for us to have our freedom.

For the 2nd year Purgatory Golf Club is very proud to be one of the host sites for World’s Largest Golf Outing benefitting Wounded Warrior Project. Last year we had over 90 participants play in the event at Purgatory. This year our goal is to have 120 players. We have an enormous amount of pride to be part of the group that has contributed over $885,000 in donations for our Wounded Warriors last year, and have raised over 2 million since 2011.

The mission of Wounded Warrior Project is to honor and empower Wounded Warriors. WWP’s purpose is to raise awareness and to enlist the public’s aid for the needs of injured service members, to help injured servicemen and women aid and assist each other, and to provide unique, direct programs and services to meet their needs.

Last year we had a presentation of arms, a live version of the national anthem, Fuzzy’s Vodka brought out their showcase semi truck, and we had a special guest play in the event, one of our wounded warriors. This year we are working hard to surpass last year in every aspect of the event.

Monday, August 3rd we are having a 10:00 am shotgun: we are accepting players, donations and sponsorships. If you would like more information please go to www.worldslargestgolfouting.com or call us at the golf shop 317.776.4653. Please come out and join us for a day of fun and fundraising to support those who have fought for our freedom.

Golf is a fantastic vehicle to use to raise money, awareness and build camaraderie. The PGA Tour gives more to charity in a year than the other 4 major sports combined. Once you start adding up all the charity golf outings, it is amazing how golf supports people in need and worthy causes. If this is the year you want to raise money for something that is near and dear to your heart, contact us. We will help you exceed your dreams of a great event.

Par 3’s have a huge impact on my overall feeling and personal rating of golf courses. It is a pet peeve of mine when I use the same club for 3 of the 4 par 3 shots on a course. With Purgatory being spread out over 218 acres very few people notice that the par 3’s all play in different directions. If we have a consistent wind you will play shots in every wind direction. Thus even if you are playing similar distances they will require different clubs.

Purgatory par 3’s all look vastly different from each other, unless you have made a hole-in-one on one of them it is extremely hard to pick your favorite as they all have fantastic features. If you are playing the farthest tee forward the only par 3 that has a forced carry is #12, in fact from those tees it is the only forced carry on the golf course.

The Golf Club originally had the working name Sassafras, the Architects original drawing is posted in the hallway, and titled with that name. There were some sassafras trees over in the north end of the property. That’s a relatively unique tree in Central Indiana, but informal market research indicated that Sassafras was not a name that serious golfers would embrace.

In religious mythology, Purgatory is where souls pay for their earthly mistakes to gain entry into heaven. It’s about overcoming obstacles to attain eternal happiness. In medieval poetry, Purgatory was referred to as “sweet misery.” Golf often feels like that; acts of difficulty while obtaining something wonderful.

The golf course is named Purgatory because it’s a beautiful place for you to test your limits. Purgatory is a name that immediately resonated with golfers and it fits, it fits with why people play golf. From the time you tee off on the first hole you have challenges and obstacles that you must navigate your way through until the last hole. You’ve had good holes and bad holes, and the shot that you think you should have made, and a few shots no one ever talks about, the miss-hits that end up perfect.

Purgatory conjures images of great obstacle; it’s a name you remember. Every golf course is difficult if you play from the wrong tees boxes. Is our golf course a challenge? Absolutely. But does that mean you have to make it too difficult for yourself? The answer is no. Play a distance that allows you to enjoy the course and the day, you will find the course to be almost heavenly from the correct set of tees.

The logo also is a discussion starter that even non-golfers find very interesting.

There are a few architects that think the first hole should set a tone for the course and be a very challenging hole. Donald Ross immediately comes to mind as most of his course that I have played start off extremely hard and par is an excellent score. The first hole at Purgatory eases you into the rest of the day, it is relatively short in distance and wide in the landing area.

It is a dogleg left, where the object is not about hitting it long, it’s trying to fit your tee shot into an area that’s 200 to 230 yards off the tee and 50 yards wide. So hopefully you start your round off out of the fairway, leaving yourself with a short iron, into a little bit of an elevated green that’s pretty receptive, not a lot of undulation, not a lot of movement to it … so you’re not going to hit a shot and be rejected left or right.

Two decent shots ought to give yourself a chance for a par on the first hole; depending on the tee markers many longer players approach this hold as a classic risk reward as they may be able to drive the ball onto the green. I personally do not recommend this as the approach shot from very close and left of the green is very challenging and depending on the hole placement could eliminate a good birdie opportunity. When you are on the green take time to overlook the whole course as the green is the highest elevation point on the property.